Make A Bad Day Better
by Reader115
Summary: Keith recognizes that Lance is struggling and shows up to help his friend. All the comfort without the hurt. Pre-Klance. AU: College setting.


The last person Lance expects to see when he opens his door is Keith.

His eyes widened as he watched Keith glance up at him before ducking his own eyes back to the ground, both hands fidgeting with the plastic handles of the bag he was carrying.

Timid wasn't a look he'd ever seen on Keith. Lance immediately felt hot with guilt.

"Keith, I —"

"Lance," Keith interrupted, eyes still pinned to the ground, but face covered with an expression Lance recognized as the determined look Keith gets whenever he's forcing himself to do something outside of his comfort zone. "You're my friend, and that means a lot to me."

"Keith, its —"

"And you've shown me how to be a good friend, including how to take care of the people who are important to me." The plastic bag crinkled as Keith transferred it to one hand.

"You're important to me, too, Keith. I was way out of line and —"

"I started to think, after I left earlier, about what you would do, if I had yelled at you like that."

" _Keith_ , I'm —"

"And _you_ probably would've recognized that I was under a lot of stress, and not eating or sleeping properly way before it reached this point. And I'm sorry I didn't notice sooner."

" _You're_ sorry? I yelled at you for no good reason and you're apologi—"

"Lance."

"Are you gonna let me finish a sentence?"

"No. Can I just come in?"

Lance blinked and glanced up and down his dorm hallway as he realized he'd somehow managed to forget to invite Keith in. Damn, he was tired. He stepped back and widened the door to allow Keith entry.

Keith set the bag down on Lance's desk and began to dig through it. A moment later he was pouring a can of soup into a bowl (that he pulled from Lance's clean pile, and the fact that he knew his way around Lance's room so easily was telling), and stuck it in the microwave.

Lance crossed his arms over his chest and frowned (but remained silent) as he watched Keith first save and then close the essay he'd been trying and failing to complete for the past two days. Keith pulled up his Netflix account and then patted a spot on Lance's bed a few times.

Lance sat on the bed obediently while Keith turned the laptop so he could see it, glanced at Lance, and then tuned the laptop so he could see it even better. He retrieved the hot soup from the microwave, pulled a spoon for it, and handed it carefully to Lance.

"What is happening?"

Keith sat next to him on the bed and leaned over to the laptop to choose a show.

"You're going to eat your soup and watch an episode of that terrible show you like so much."

"Keith, I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier, but like I said, I have to finish —"

"When was the last time you ate an actual meal?"

Keith's eyes bore into him and Lance picked up his spoon and began to eat. He leaned back against the headboard and decided to just let himself have these twenty minutes of food and trash TV.

When the soup was gone and the show was over, Keith hopped up from beside him and took his bowl away before he rustled through the plastic bag again.

"I didn't know which one you normally buy, but both of these are labeled as _calming_." Keith turned and held out two face masks to show Lance. "You pick one and put it on, and I promise to put on the other. Or have you put the other on me, because I've never tried this before."

Lance stood from the bed and stared at the two choices before the awestruck expression rose to Keith's face.

"You're seriously going to do this with me?"

Keith valiantly tried and failed to hold back a grimace. But he still nodded.

Smiling was nonstop for the next twenty minutes as he applied both their face masks and reveled in the adorable way Keith managed to pout through the entire process.

When the face masks were removed, he passed Keith a towel to dry his face, and paused to just stare at his friend for a moment. He knew how prickly Keith could be with his trust, and he knew Keith didn't let many people in, so when Keith had left his room earlier, after Lance had lashed out at the closest thing to him due to unrelated frustrations, he had been pretty damn sure he'd blown it with Keith forever.

"Thanks for coming back," he said suddenly. "And for taking care of me, Keith. I don't deserve it —"

"Yes you do. I meant it when I said you're important to me."

Lance smiled again. He'd missed smiling. He missed feeling content and happy. He hadn't even realized how bad things had been getting until today.

"You're really important to me, too. You know that right?"

Keith nodded, eyes fond and shiny, sharing the sentiment he often had a hard time putting to words, although he'd done a damn fine job expressing himself this afternoon.

"One more thing." Keith climbed into Lance's bed and patted the spot next to him.

When Lance settled next to him, Keith pulled up one of his favorite documentaries.

"You're gonna finish my relaxation treatment by boring me to death?"

"Something like that," Keith murmured before tugging Lance closer.

It was easy to settle against Keith, with his familiar shape and scent. And it was easy to close his eyes against the narrator's monotone voice as he described fossils or something. And it was easy to let himself focus only on Keith's fingers as they began to run through his hair and scratch lightly at his scalp.

He was asleep less than five minutes into the documentary. Keith smiled and let his head rest against the top of Lance's.


End file.
